WOW Camp Parents With Last Minute Communication - CampHacker #69

Surprise and Delight Your Summer Camp Parents

Giving camp parents an experience that they will remember and recommend to their friends is one of the most important aspects of our job.  There are many opportunities to give them a “WOW”.

Perhaps one point of contact with parents that we don’t put enough effort into is our final communications with them.   Our last calls and emails before a camp session starts help parents get a feel for how seriously we take our job.   It’s a chance for us to show them who the #CampPros are.

I know I say each of the podcasts was awesome… because it’s true!  This one is no different.  Listen in to hear Marc Cooper (Camp Tamarack director) blow our minds with some projects from Fiverr!

What are you going to do to surprise and delight your camp families before summer starts?

Tool of the Week – Make Yourself a Better Camp Director

Travis - Unroll.me
Joe -  Brinno time lapse camera
Marc - Imagechef.com

Marc was last on the show for our Happy Kitchen, Happy Camp episode.  It's great to have him back!

Your Hosts:

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.TV

• Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Christian Centre

• Marc Cooper, Director - Camp Tamarack

 

Rate and Review the CampHacker Show in iTunes 

(It helps! It really, really helps!)

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Making Campers Global Citizens - CampHacker #45

Summer Camp Lessons for the Rest of Your Life

Like many of you, camp changed by life.  I have often talked on the show about how I changed from a very nerdy kid into a nerdy adult with social skills. I do believe that one of the best moments of my life was when my counsellor Ian took me aside and said “Travis, you will make a great camp counsellor”.

There were other impacts of camp ask I got older, too.   I know that my environmental and social justice thinking comes directly from my camp director, Bob Faris, and the counsellors that worked for him.  Even my motto “Consume Less and Create More” can be traced back to lessons I learned while a camper at Kintail.

In this week’s show David, Gab and Joe share some brilliant ideas of how they inspire their campers to be great global citizens.  Listen in for some concrete examples that you can start to implement for next summer.

How to you inspire your campers to think of others outside of their camp and home communities?

Tool of the Week – Make yourself a better Camp Director

Travis: Yes! 50 scientifically proven ways to be persuasive 
Gab: - GoPro Camera App
Joe: Book - Gold Nuggets - Readings for Experiential Education
David: Google Drive

Your Hosts:

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.org
• Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Christian Centre
• David Gill, Executive Director - Ferncliff Camp & Conference Center
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Planning Perfect Programs - CampHacker #43

Evaluating Your Summer Camp Programs

How do you know if your programs are working?  What would make you add a new program that you hadn’t considered before?

In this week’s CampHacker podcast we talked about summer camp program areas and how we know if they are working or if we need to change them.   

I really appreciated Gab’s story of how Ouareau came to add Crossfit to their program.   Listen to the show for details.

The last segment of our discussion revolved around trends that we are seeing that we think could be come big camp activities in the future.

What interesting trends are you keeping your eye on and thinking of for camp activities?
Please leave us a note in the comments below or tweet us @CampHacker with your suggestion.

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

Dan: ACACamps.org: "The Dollar$ and Cents of Operating a Camp" by M. Deborah Bialeschki, PhD
Joe: Six Person Crokinole - Boards from Willard: http://www.crokinolegame.ca/
Travis: MyDlink camera
Gab: Organization can be fun: Action Method

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.org
• Joe Richards, Executive Director - Pearce Williams Christian Centre
• Dan Weir, Director of Camping Services - Frost Valley YMCA
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Thanks for the evening, friends.

Setting the tone for next year - CampHacker #41

Improve next summer’s camp, now.

We are tired.

At the end of a LOOOONG camp season all we want to do is crawl into bed and watch a great new series on DVD (I must remember to ask Dan what his “catch up” show was this summer).  

However, this is the best time to sit down with your favourite warm beverage, a note pad and your best pen.  Some of you may choose to do this with camper surveys and notes from your senior staff but I think that might be unnecessary.  Take a solid block of time to mentally scan your whole camp and note the things that you want to change for next season.   

Dan and Gab had some great ideas on how they reflect on the past summer and find the changes that they want to make.  Summer 2013 starts now!

Dan has shared with us the Frost Valley Camper Survey from 2012 (click here) and you can download the pdf of their registration form from this link.

What can we do to inspire our staff to become even better in the second half of the summer? Please leave us a note in the comments below or tweet us @CampHacker with your suggestion.

Tool of the Week – make yourself a better Camp Director

Dan: GSI Outdoors Telescoping Spatula & Spoon
Gab: Design Deals, Mighty Deals
Travis: Logitech HD Webcam

(please note: Amazon products are affiliate links)

Your Hosts:

• Travis Allison, Summer Camp Consultant - CampHacker.org
• Dan Weir, Director of Camping Services - Frost Valley YMCA
• Gabrielle Raill, Camp Director - Camp Ouareau

Thanks for the evening, friends.